Another Presidential fiat – and the poignancy of it all

In 1787, shortly after emerging from Independence Hall where the Constitution was written, Ben Franklin was asked the question, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin responded, “a republic, if you can keep it.”

Since assuming office in 2009, Barack Obama has signed 154 Executive Orders. It’s not the quantity that has been signed, but rather the content, e.g., immigration’s Dream Act, work requirements watered down in the Healthcare Reform Act, non-enforcement of DOMA. Now we have the Executive branch delaying Obamacare’s employer mandate until 2015 because of the “complexity of the requirements” according to Mark Mazur, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy.

In Roll Call‘s July 5th article, law professor Timothy Jost of George Washington University is quoted,

“I don’t see the courts intervening here. I’m sure Congress will hold hearings but there really isn’t anything they can do”

And that’s how it’s been on the other occasions when the President has made end runs around Congress. We have spineless leadership in the House, that refuses to call out the Administration on its lawlessness, and a Democratically-controlled Senate that has near-canonized the current White House occupant and is complicit itself by its silence.

It seems especially poignant with the delay announcement coming the week of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the 237th anniversary the founding of our republic. Both anniversaries where men staked their lives, their honor and their fortunes for a government of the people, by the people and for the people. How many of them would have done so if they had ESP to see into the future as to what our country’s become today.